Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amount was not €10 million. It was not even €2 million. The Deputy was the one who called for the provision of €10 million for the scheme. Nobody else made that call. We were focusing on getting fodder into the country as opposed to handing out money.

If all the savings to which I refer are added up, the amount involved is approximately €45 million. Those are natural savings. We are seeking to make savings that are required of us of €54 million. That is before we have had the opportunity to try to renegotiate some of the capital spending. We are pursuing that matter aggressively at present and I am hoping we will make some progress on it. We could possibly reach a point where we would not be obliged to cut schemes at all. However, we must find some space to put new money into the suckler beef sector. We are examining ways in which we can make savings without affecting farmers directly.

The challenge in the context of the forthcoming budget relates to finding ways of spending new money. With natural savings and a positive outcome to negotiations on capital budgets, I hope that the overall figure will match the target that has been set for us.

The question then is how much money can we find through sensible savings to put into a sector that needs a boost, namely the suckler sector. I cannot be more open than that.